pretty awesome.

I have been feeling pretty awesome lately. A little stressed, recovering from a bit of a cold, cold from the unseasonably chilly Dutch winter and cycling in the rain from my house to Amsterdam Noord this morning, but nonetheless, pretty awesome. I think it's because I feel like things are starting to come together, research-wise, at long last. I think 28 (my verjaardag was this past Wednesday), is going to be a good year.

First of all, I am feeling more confident about my Dutch. In part, this is thanks to starting an amazing speaking partnership programme two weeks ago. I found the SamenSpraak programma offered by the Gilde Amsterdam group a long, long while ago. The Gilde is an organization whose goal is to make Amsterdam a better place to live. They do a few different things around the city which seem to range from general volunteer work in schools and such, to integration-related work, but also sponsor activities like free walking tours (neat!) guided by real Amsterdammers (which shows you a much different city than what you would see if you took a conventional commercial tour). Anyway, I finally called up the SamenSpraak people and arranged an interview, and then last week met with my very own Amsterdammer to work on my Dutch. I know I still need a lot of work, since I make simple mistakes and often forget words, but I think that Dennis and I have had some pretty good and relaxed conversations so far. And, I am happy to say we're not only talking about the weather and vegetables (though I think we've covered the weather a few times - I mean, hey, this is the Netherlands afterall)!

Secondly, I am volunteering more. (Yay!) I think that I knew volunteering at places was a good idea, a great way to meet people and show my face around the 'community' a long while ago, but I just never quite knew how to go about doing it. My fieldworking partner-in-crime so to speak, Ms. Long, had the volunteer-thing in the bag since the get-go, but she has also made a lot of contacts in her own neighbourhood in Rotterdam (the woman knows her butcher!) and volunteering opportunities have been easier to find for her. I don't live in the neighbourhood I plan to study, so making contacts outside of academic-circles has been a bit more of a puzzle for me. Thankfully (and to make a long-story short-ish), I happily stumbled upon the Vrijwilligers Centraal Amsterdam (Volunteers Central Amsterdam) website last week. While I may have actually seen this site before, my now much-improved Dutch skills have meant that I actually understood what a vrijwilliger was and what the site was about: basically, an excellent resource for anyone looking for any kind of volunteer opportunity in Amsterdam. Although the site is all in Dutch (so you need either some level of comprehension or a friend who can help to navigate it), there are many vacatures that require little or no knowledge of Dutch (just click the 'Anderstaligen' box in the search engine and, voila, literally hundreds of opportunities pop up indicating that 'geen of weinig Nederlands is ok' - that is, 'no or little Dutch is ok').

So, last Friday I volunteered to help out with leisure activities at a senior's home in Amsterdam Noord. I sent the reaction email via the website, and literally, within a minute of hitting send I got a phone call from the volunteer coordinator asking to set up a meeting! I had the meeting this morning - also nearly all in Dutch - and hope to start doing handicrafts, drinking coffee, and talking to lots of older Amsterdammers this coming Wednesday. I am pretty excited, and feeling (especially now that my feet are dry and I am warmed up again), pretty awesome.